Alone in the Dark Hands-On Presentation With Producer Nour Polloni

Alone in the Dark Hands-On
Presentation With Producer Nour Polloni
By Louis Bedigian

“Suddenly it hit us – why not take that
captivation and addiction and bring it to Alone in the Dark?”

It’s been two years since the confirmation of a
new Alone in the Dark. We’ve waited, wondered, and occasionally scratched
our heads while mumbling: “What will become of this game?” After little more
than a press release here and a screenshot there, it was beginning to feel like
one of those illusive projects you hear about but may never get to play.

The fears, question marks, and any other feelings
of doubt were put to rest this week when Atari gave the video game press its
first test drive of their highly anticipated survival/horror sequel.

But before we could scramble for the nearest Xbox
controller or Wii remote, we were treated to an in-depth walk-through of the
levels we were about to experience, courtesy of Nour Polloni, Producer at Eden
Games. The event kicked off with a few words from Phil Harrison, President of
Atari’s parent company, Infogrames.

“I’m proud to be with you this evening to share
the amazing, creative vision that Eden Games has delivered in this truly
widescreen, cinematic experience that is Alone in the Dark,” said Harrison.
Though at this point we didn’t know it, the word “cinematic” was dead-on.

Shipping for Xbox 360, PC, Wii and PS2 on June 24
(and on PS3 in the fall), Harrison noted that convergence in filmmaking and game
design – a key component in the evolution of Alone in the Dark – was not always
well received. “Filmmakers and game designers were never really considered
equals,” he says, but believes the latest consoles have leveled the playing
field. “Today’s game designers grew up watching films. And you can definitely
tell that today’s filmmakers grew up playing games.

“You can see that today’s stories, whether filmed
or interactive, now share a very close set of creative techniques. The audiences
on the big screen or the game screen are being immersed in a similar language of
storytelling.” That, he says, is what they mean by convergence in today’s games.

“This isn’t a game that will play itself – far
from it,” he continues, eliminating concerns that Alone in the Dark will
sacrifice gameplay for story. “Alone in the Dark demands a great deal from the
player with sophisticated controls that challenge and reward the player.”

Harrison then spoke briefly about Alone in the
Dark’s DVD-style format, which he hopes will encourage every player to stick
around until the credits roll. “We want everybody who plays this game to finish
this game, something which is not always considered a value in game development.
We want to see players enjoy the entire narrative.”

Harrison’s presentation concluded with a showing
of the game’s latest trailer, which can also be viewed on GameZone’s
downloads page.
After the visual hint of things to come, Nour Polloni came on stage to walk us
through several of the game’s levels.

“Alone in the Dark is the story of one man who in
one night must fight to survive the unimaginable to reveal the secret behind
Central Park,” she began. “But before we get into the details of the game, I’d
like to say a few words on the Alone in the Dark brand. [It] is one of the key
franchises in video games. Created in 1992, the first Alone in the Dark brought
innovation; something fresh and original and really created a whole new genre,
the horror genre, and was the source of inspiration for games today like
Resident Evil and Silent Hill. For this opus, we really wanted to mark a new era
and bring Alone in the Dark to an entirely new direction while staying true to
the series’ innovations in the first Alone in the Dark.

“The game stars Edward Carnby from the first
[game]," she continues, "who finds himself plunged into today’s world from the
1930s without aging a bit. He wakes up not knowing who he is or where he is.”

Wanting the player to be completely immersed in
the story-to-game and game-to-story experience, Polloni explained how, in the
opening sequence, gameplay comes immediately after the story sequence concludes.
She said that from there “we plunge the player into first-person view, and give
the player control from the first cinematic.”

And that’s not all they’ve done. Alone in the
Dark will be the first video game whose levels can be played in any order. This
surprising move comes from one of the game’s core inspirations: television. If
you were to start watching Lost, 24 or Prison Break (the three shows Polloni has
cited for inspiration on many occasions) this week, you could buy or rent the
DVD and catch up. Or you could skip ahead, watch the season finales and try to
figure out the rest. That’s the kind of freedom TV viewers expect. Alone in the
Dark provides that same expectation.

“Suddenly it hit us,” Polloni says, speaking
about her and the development team’s love of television. “Why not take that
captivation and addiction and bring it to Alone in the Dark?”

After analyzing the narrative structure of
television, the team decided to take the season format – multiple episodes with
multiple but continuous stories – and apply it to the game. That helped the
developers intertwine the stories while improving the pace. “Not just for one
episode, but from one episode to another all throughout the game,” said Polloni.
“To complete the package, we’ve added ‘Previously’ trailers that, when you leave
the game and come back, if you can’t really remember what the story was, this
will help remind you of all the key elements.”

You’re Fired

Back in 1996, Nintendo released a racing game
that thrived on H2O: Wave Race 64. Without realistic water physics – both from a
gameplay and visual perspective – the game would have been a total failure. It,
more than any other, needed natural water effects to survive.

Twelve years later, we are finally approaching
another equally important graphical innovation: fire. Alone in the Dark is a
game that is literally engulfed in flames. Fire can be your enemy or your
friend. It can be used to take out your enemies or – if used carelessly and not
extinguished quickly – could turn into your worst nightmare.

On paper, it sounds like a nice idea. But how do
you get players on board? How do you convince us, the hardcore gamer crowd, to
believe in its power? By making it believable – by making it as realistic as
possible.

“To achieve [realistic effects], we based the
method on our physics engine,” said Polloni. “And we applied a level of
flammability on all materials. That allows us to have fire that spreads out in a
dynamic way. The fire is not scripted.

“From there, through a degree of simulated heat,
we can have all the different stages of burning throughout the propagation. From
small flames to blazing flames, all the way down to charcoal.”

Polloni says that they really wanted this to be a
big part of the gameplay, and it took them a long time to pull off. “To do that,
we had to reunite the elements together. First of all there’s fire as just a
spark. Second, fire that can generate real-time light. Thirdly, we needed fire
that could look convincingly great while being able to be interactive.” They did
all that, Polloni revealed, because the developers wanted fire to be your most
powerful ally in the game.